In 1996, Steven Glaudini first stepped onstage at the Moonlight Amphitheatre. On Wednesday, June 26, the Vista resident will open his first summer season as Moonlight’s producing artistic director.

The Orange County native — who is stage directing “South Pacific,” the first of four shows he’ll produce at the outdoor Vista theater this summer — said he’s having “an absolute blast” running the company that he freelanced for (as both a director and an actor) for the past 16 years. In December, Glaudini succeeded Moonlight Stage Productions' founding artistic director Kathy Brombacher, who retired after 31 years.

“It’s been a little overwhelming but it’s also been a lot of fun,” Glaudini said. “I’ve never lived in the same town where I’ve worked, and it’s really rejuvenating to run home between rehearsals and have dinner with Bets (Malone, his wife of 18 years and an actress who grew up on the Moonlight stage).”

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1949 musical “South Pacific” stars popular Moonlight leading man Randall Dodge as the french widower Emile de Becque and actress Hilary Maiberger (star of Moonlight’s “Little Women” last year) as Navy nurse Nellie Forbush, who fall in love on a South Seas island during World War II. Danny Gurwin (Jean Valjean in Moonlight’s 2008 “Les Miserables”) plays the troubled Lt. Cable, who falls for a local island girl. The cast totals 31.

Glaudini’s production will feature most of the sets and costumes from the Tony Award-winning Lincoln Center production, which highlighted the themes of racial prejudice in the script. Carlos Mendoza is choreographing the production and Elan McMahan is musical director and conductor for a 28-piece orchestra — the largest in Moonlight history.

“We had our first orchestra rehearsal last night and it was just astounding to hear,” Glaudini said Friday. “Every song is a standard and the actors are really digging deep to tell this powerful story.”

Dodge will be back again as the Cowardly Lion in the season’s second show, “The Wizard of Oz,” which runs July 24 through Aug. 10. Next is “Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein” Aug. 21-Sept. 7, which will co-star well-known Vista actors Randall Hickman and Douglas Davis (as the Monster and Inspector, respectively). And the season closes with La Jolla Playhouse-born “The Who’s Tommy,” Sept. 18 through Oct. 5.

Glaudini is billing the last two shows of the season as “PG-13,” which is part of his long-term plan to reach out to younger audiences, while still producing big Broadway-style shows that appeal to Moonlight’s older patrons. As opening day nears, subscription renewals are near 100 percent, so Glaudini is hoping to turn some of this year’s first-time visitors into new subscribers to strengthen the city-run theater’s bottom line.

As part of the outreach program, Moonlight is offering two new programs to appeal to younger audiences.

First, on Friday nights, the amphitheater’s Artisan Cafe will be staying open until midnight to host after-theater parties, with a mashed potato bar, hot wings and drinks, where showgoers can mingle with friends and cast members after the show.

The theater is also expanding its family ticket packages. On Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday nights, lawn tickets for children ages 15 and under are $10, when accompanied by two adults. And now on Friday nights, the same deal is offered for $15. These tickets are only available at the box office on the night of the show.

Besides opening the season on Wednesday, Glaudini said he will announce from the stage that night the four shows that make up the 2014 season, which he promises will continue his new tradition of big shows with spectacular sets and costumes, starring a mix of Broadway and local actors.

“South Pacific” has been a big ticket-seller, Glaudini said, but it’s also a sentimental favorite for him.

The last time Moonlight produced this musical in 1998, Glaudini played the role of Seabee Luther Billis and his best friend, Eric Anderson, starred as Lt. Cable. Today, Glaudini’s running the Moonlight and Anderson has a flourishing Broadway career (he played “Stewpot” in Lincoln Center’s “South Pacific, and he just left the Tony-winning “Kinky Boots” to star in his own Broadway musical, “Soul Doctor”).

“It’s very exciting for me to carry on Kathy’s legacy and to get to be a part of all the shows here,” Glaudini said. “Bets and I are happy to be in Vista and we’re loving our life right now.”

“South Pacific”

When: Opens Wednesday, June 26, and runs through July 13; showtimes, 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays (plus July 2; no performance July 4)